The Pianist: The Life of Wladyslaw Szpilman...How music saved his life

Wladyslaw Szpilman

         Wladyslaw Szpilman is the narrator/author the book The Pianist. It is a memoir of his life during the Holocaust. He experienced multiple encounters with death and somehow survived it all. In my opinion anyone from the holocaust who has the courage to write about their experience is not a typical writer. In fact, the Holocaust itself, though the whole world knows its story, still is not common because there are multiple perceptions and story lines in that period of time. The story of Wladyslaw is a riveting tale of how music saved his life during the Holocaust. Before the Holocaust music to Wladyslaw was his job, life, and passion. When the Holocaust began music transformed into his shield against death. Wladyslaw left his legacy on the Earth by becoming a great influence in the Polish musical world and his tale inspiring readers to always find your sanctuary because when time comes it could be the only buffer between you and death.

         The story begins with Wladyslaw doing his daily routines playing piano at a radio station in the Warsaw ghetto. He mentioned the daily the smuggling going because of the food shortage within the ghetto. There was this one time a kid was trying to get food to his family and when his was trying to get through the crack in the wall a police man spotted him and started beating at his spine. Wladyslaw tried to save him but by the time he arrived the kid’s spine was demolished he died. Moving forward, the German had finally invaded Warsaw. This is the time when the Jewish men had to go out and start setting up a defense. Wladyslaw’s father and his brother, Henryk were about to set off to help the others. But in the end they all decided to stay in together in Warsaw because they would rather die together at home than die separated from one another. When the Germans established their rule on Warsaw things in the ghetto became much more difficult for Wladyslaw and his family. The Germans started hunts on the Jews where they would pick Jews off the street and beat them up for their own entertainment. Not only that every few days or so there would be announcements restricting Jews by making give up their land, most of their money, and all valuables that were near and dear to the Jews. As time moved the Germans were now commencing the utter destruction of the Jews. They would come into Jewish homes and start killing them. There was this one slaughter in particular that had me teary eyed. A Nazi told everyone in this family to stand up but this one old man couldn’t do so because of his feebleness and age. But that did not matter to the Nazi. He picked of the wheel with the old man in it and threw him out the window. Wladyslaw could hear the old man slamming on the ground. Now it was time for the Jews to “resettle” AKA sent to the concentration camps and soon die in the gas chambers. Wladyslaw and his family were sent to a camp called The Umschlagplatz. This is where the family finally separated. As Wladyslaw was walking with his family to trucks an officer pulled him aside and told him to go back to the ghetto. Wladyslaw screamed for his father but his father saw him and just smiled and waved knowing the fact that he would never see his son again. After this devastating moment there was hope. As Wladyslaw continued working as a pianist for the officers that killed Jews for a living D-Day arrived. Wladyslaw was hiding up in a building until a Nazi finally found him. Wladyslaw was ready to accept his inevitable fate until the Nazi said, “what do you do for a living?” He replied he was a pianist and told him to play. Wladyslaw played Chopin’s Nocturne in C minor. After he finished the Nazi was in awe. The Nazi kept his hiding place a secret and gave him food and supply until one day the Nazi told him he has to leave and told Wladyslaw to hang in there because the war was finally coming to an end. The war finally came to an end and Wladyslaw was rescued by the Soviet Army.